Because I Wanted To- A Reflection on Why We Sin in James 1.14-15

November 18, 2008

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” -James 1.14-15

There is always a question of why we choose to sin. Of particular interest I believe is the question of why believers, once they have experienced “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3.5), still fall victims to sin? Granted, there are a few among us who hold to a heretical view of sinless perfectionism, but even those of an Arminian bent towards apostasy will still admit that believers sin as believers. But why?

The thing we should consider first is that, though we have been caused to be born again (1 Peter 1.3) we still exist in the flesh where sin dwells (Galatians 2.20, Romans 7.17-18), and thus it is necessary that we daily struggle to be made perfect like Christ (Romans 8.29, Philippians 3.12).

So then, why is it that we are not perfect? Why is it that we “do not do what [we] want, but [we] do the very thing[s we] hate” (Romans 7.15)? It is this which I think James perfectly explains in his words. We sin because, at some level, there is a part of us which has not been crucified with Christ, and this part we not only still have, but we still desire to fulfill it. Whether the particular vice is sexual immorality, greed, anger, or laziness, if there is still a part of our sin nature which we have not turned over to God, though it has been fully forgiven already, it will still give rise to a desire to commit sin. It is because of this that we must turn everything over to Christ, why we must practice taking up our cross daily and dying to self (Luke 9.23), so that those desires which lure us in like a fish on a hook will no longer have hold on our lives, no longer driving us to sin and away from God.

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Posted by Todd Burus

How Many Rootless Trees in Our Orchard?- A Sermon on True Christianity from Matthew 13.3-23

November 3, 2008

“And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.’” -Matthew 13.3-9

60 million Americans claim to be evangelicals. 6 out of every 10 Americans say they have had a born-again experience with God. Do you believe that? Really, do you buy into those numbers? I don’t either. Yet, what can we do? Can we say these people aren’t saved? Can we say that what they think they experienced they didn’t? No, I wouldn’t encourage that. Then what?

Well, I think we must examine what the problem is. To me, and to many other American Christians, the problem is clear: to “be born-again” requires little more than an emotional response and an intellectual exercise in the vast majority of American churches. People pray a prayer, sign a card, walk an aisle, and splash around in a baptismal. But, at the end of the day, they still live however the hell they want to without the slightest change.

A few weeks ago JD Greear of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC preached a sermon on this covering the parable of the sower and the seeds. Here is a snippet of what he had to say:

See, here is what is troubling to me: our evangelical culture . . . really emphasizes a moment of conversion. . . . But did you notice, in this parable, these are all people who have made that initial response to Jesus? . . . Jesus’ warning is, these people though aren’t really followers of mine.

That’s right. Christ himself knew that there would be people who would show initial signs of conversion, a good start, and yet after a period of time (usually 8 weeks in the American church) they had fallen away. Now, this is not that they have been saved and then lost that salvation, but that they were never saved in the first place (Christ says that they “have no root” and “[prove] unfruitful“).

If this is the case, then why is it that we focus so much on simply getting an initial “conversion” and emphasizing our free grace theology? Well, the first reason, I think, is because it increases numbers a lot faster than the type of conversion and discipleship needed to grow solid followers of Christ, much in the same way that a healthy, fruitful tree requires more care than one that is withered and dead, with no root and fruitless. Second, it is much less confrontational. If all a person need do is sign a card and then that serves as their assurance for the rest of their life, that is certainly easier to promote than the radical repentance and accountability that true believers are called to. There are sure to be others, but I will stop and let you brainstorm the rest.

Also, while you ponder this issue, please take a listen to the sermon I noted above. JD Greear has a very easy to follow and yet profoundly deep style of teaching which I think really makes the prevalency and severity of this issue clear to see. Enjoy!

JD Greear- Why the Jesus Thing Never Takes with Some People; Matthew 13.3-23

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Pleasing the Body While Pleasing God- A Christian Evaluation of Pornography and Lust by Mark Driscoll

October 29, 2008

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” -1 Corinthians 6.18

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” -Matthew 5.27-28

Over the past several weeks Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA has been releasing chapters in a free online book entitled Porn-Again Christian: A Frank Discussion on Pornography and Masturbation, and in light of previous posts concerning this issue (most notably here) I figured that I would provide a link for you guys to his site.

This is a really interesting project. Of course it contains some of the typical (controversial) Driscoll-esque rawness to it, but the substance of this work is a very pointed and convicting look at how we (mostly men) use and abuse pornography and lust in our attempts to fill some sort of dangerous, sinful desires in our flesh. I think of all the people out there Mark Driscoll does a superb job of making you feel not the least bit okay with your sexual sin (candy-coating sin is not a strong suit for him).

Here are a couple of quotes from the piece:

In creation, we see the wise pattern that for every man his standard of beauty is not to be objectified, but rather it should simply be his wife. This means that if a man has a tall, skinny red-headed wife then that is sexy for him, and if his neighbor has a short, curvy brunette wife then that is sexy for him. Pornographic lust exists to elicit coveting and dissatisfaction that no woman can satisfy because she cannot be tall and short, endowed and waifish, black and white, young and old, like the harem laid out in pornography. (from Chapter 4, A Practical Theology of Pornographic Lust).

And,

Indeed, our God is Lord over all of our lives and helpful for the practical matters of what to do with our mouth, hands, and genitals. As God’s men, we do not pursue this redemption and holiness solely for ourselves but also for God’s mission to save and redeem the sea of lost men around us who are their own god and sin with their mouth, hands, and genitals. (from Chapter 6, Manly Men)

Again, I do want to warn that this work is a little rough around the edges and so if you don’t like being shocked by very direct imagery of the outworking of sexual sin you may want to avoid this. However, if you can handle the writing style I think that you will find this text to be a great resource for yourself either as a personal help or as a guide for helping others dealing with sexual immorality.

Porn-Again Christian by Mark Driscoll

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Posted by Todd Burus

The Language of Salvation- A Further Look at Misusing Phrases and Imagery for Salvation

October 28, 2008

Just to continue the idea that I started yesterday, about the misuse of certain verses and imagery in presenting the Gospel message, I thought I would share with you guys a quote from Dr. John MacArthur which deals with the subject:

Listen to the typical gospel presentation nowadays. You’ll hear sinners entreated with words like, ‘accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior’; ‘ask Jesus into your heart’; ‘invite Christ into your life’; or ‘make a decision for Christ.’ You may be so accustomed to hearing those phrases that it will surprise you to learn that none of them is based on Biblical terminology. They are the products of a diluted gospel. (The Gospel According to Jesus, p.21)

These words strike even further to the core of what I simply breached yesterday which was the fact that many evangelists just throw around spiritual phraseology, to the point that we basically accept it as biblical talk, and yet at the end of the day most of it doesn’t stand up to the truth of Scripture.

The thing that is even more provoking about it is that all of these phrases seem to emphasize a highly man-centered view of the act of salvation. Now, I believe that man does have the responsibility of exercising repentance and faith in the act of redemption, as called by forth by Acts 2.42 and Romans 10.9, but by describing the receiving of salvation as “asking Jesus into your heart” or “accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior” it seems we lose the very God-centered flavor of many passages in Scripture, such as 1 Peter 1.3 (”Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again . . . “) or Ephesians 2.4-5 (”But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved“) or Colossians 2.13 (”And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses“).

Scripture is very clear that there is some sense in which it is God who “saved us . . . according to his own mercy” (Titus 3.4-7), and yet that is overlooked, even taboo in some circles of the church. Maybe this is part of our wanderings in attractional, self-esteem based evangelism which makes us desire the act of salvation to be a brass ring that we are skilled enough to grab, I don’t know. But I can tell you this, if we really long to see a change in the life of the American church we are in dire need of a return to the biblical accounts of salvation which emphasize God’s goodness and our inability, a humbling perspective on what has become a disgustingly consumerist idea.

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Posted by Todd Burus

Nobody’s Home- Addressing the Misuse of Revelation 3.20

October 27, 2008

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” -Revelation 3.20

I’m sure all of us, at some point, have been sitting in a church service and heard the pastor make a statement like,

And after rising again Jesus said “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and dine with him.” He wants to come into your heart and life and live with you forever. Take you home to heaven, make you God’s child. The question is are you going to say “Go away Jesus” or are you going to say “Yes, Jesus. I want you to come into my heart and save me.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it. Sounds too good, huh?

I don’t know about you, but whenever I here this verse presented this way, which I did just recently sitting in an evangelistic event, it makes me cringe. I guess there is a lot of me that is turned off simply by the highly Arminian nature of the whole blurb, but even if that were all removed, even if it were just the presentation of Revelation 3.20 in this manner, using it as an evangelistic verse, I would still be highly concerned. Simply put, this is not a verse about salvation, and to use it as such misses the entire context of what Christ is trying to say.

In context what we see is this:

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ (Revelation 3.14-22)

The first clue to us that this is not an evangelistic verse is the fact that it occurs in a letter, spoken by Jesus, transcribed by John, to the church at Laodicea. Now, these days when we think of a church we think of a building with people who come to it on Sunday morning and Wednesday night. However, at the time of this writing, the church still held its intended meaning, that being of a collection or assembly of believers in Christ. So this is a letter to the group of believers who live in the city of Laodicea. Thus, and this is enough evidence for most people, if the recipients of the letter are supposed to be believers, then why would Christ be offering them salvation? Doesn’t make sense, does it?

However, that’s not all. Look at the words in verse 15: “I know your works . . . Would that you were either cold or hot!” But, if these people are lost and in need of the “gospel invitation” as many people claim, then how possibly could Jesus ask them to have hot or cold works? Can their works save them or please God in anyway if they are lost (Hebrews 11.6)?

What about verse 19: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” This is an invitation to accept Christ’s discipline. And what do we know about discipline? Hebrews 12.7-8, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” If there is discipline then you know you are a son. But if you are a son, why would you need the gospel, since your sonship is coincident with salvation (Romans 8.14-17, Ephesians 1.3-5, Galatians 4.1-7)?

All taken into account, I think it is clear that this is not an evangelistic verse. Instead, what this is is an invitation to fellowship with Christ. It is clear from Scripture that we are not perfect once saved (Philippians 3.12) but God’s command to us is to continue being conformed into the likeness of Christ throughout our natural lives (Romans 8.29). Therefore, there may be some people who have been saved and yet, for whatever reason, have broken fellowship with their Lord and Savior. Then what Christ wants them to know is that, though they may have slid into living in the old self for a while, Christ will still knock on the door, convicting their heart to repent and recommit themselves to the practice of being crucified daily.  That is the point of Revelation 3.20.

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Posted by Todd Burus

Are We Christian Yet?- Erwin Lutzer on the Purpose of Our Politics

October 26, 2008

With the whole country staring down the barrel of Election Day 2008, there are many opinions out there on who you should vote for and why (I have my own if you would like to hear them, not here though). A number of opinions out there will even brandish the moniker of the “Christian viewpoint.” Now, I’m not saying that there is not a viewpoint which is more consistent with Christianity than another, but if you take the whole landscape of people who claim to be giving you the “Christian” candidate you will be amazed by the worlds of difference in interpretation.

That’s not what this is about. What this is about is what our endgame should be in all of this. If Christians are getting involved in the electoral process, if Christians are throwing their support behind this candidate or that one, then the hope would be that these Christians have a clear purpose envisioned for what they are seeking. And we do, right? We want to end abortion, feed the poor, display the 10 Commandments, and protect the environment. We want to preserve the family and promote community. And we all know just who can do those things for us.

But at the end of the day next Tuesday, whether our guy wins or not, it is important that we keep a proper perspective about what we are to be striving for in the first place, and it is this that I think Dr. Erwin Lutzer proclaims well when he says:

[L]et us not think that getting a community to change its laws means that it has been ‘Christianized’ or that its citizens are closer to believing the Gospel. Christianity, properly understood, is a message that a holy God punishes sin, and if we do not flee to the protection of Christ, we will be damned forever. Redemption and not reformation is what we should be about. (Is God on America’s Side?, Lutzer, p.80)

That’s what it’s about. Yes, there are many social and economic issues that will make living the Christian life easier day-to-day in these United States, but above all else we must remember the words of Peter in Acts 4.12 when he said, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Be it John McCain or Barack Obama, no one will be saved from the condemnation that awaits all of us without knowing Jesus Christ as Lord, and that should be what we campaign for more than anything else!

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Not by the Sword- David on the Coming Salvation in 1 Samuel 17.46-47

October 23, 2008

“This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” -1 Samuel 17.46-47

These are the final recorded words spoken between David and the giant Goliath before David laid him flat with a well-placed smooth river stone.  Yet in these words we find more than just biblical trash talk, we see inspired words of prophecy, speaking forth to the final triumph of Christ over Satan the deceiver.

The key passage is verse 47 where David speaks to “this assembly,” or what we now call the church (the word translated today as ‘church’, ekklesia, is the Greek translation provided for the word ‘assembly’, qahal, in Hebrew), informing them that the battle is not to be won through man-centered wars and the skill of warriors in the field, but instead that God controls the battle and he will provide victory for his people apart from these means.

Of course, this prophecy finds its completion in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who destroyed death through his own death (Hebrews 2.14-15), bringing life and immortality through the proclamation of the Gospel (2 Timothy 1.10), and who has all things subjected to his reign through his resurrection and ascension to glory (Ephesians 1.20, 22).  It is by this action that we may find personal victory over death (1 Corinthians 15.54-57), not accomplished by our own struggling against evil (Ephesians 2.8), and it is in his spoils that we may share (Ephesians 2.6).

David knew who was at work when he went into the battle; 1 Samuel 17.37a, “And David said, ‘The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’“  What a blessing it would be for us if we worked to understand God’s sovereign grace in this way!

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Are We Truly Being Disciples?- Baxter on the Necessity of Christian Studies

October 14, 2008

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” -Matthew 28.18-20

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” -Hebrews 5.12-14

This is a pet peeve of mine, and maybe I get a little too harsh on it sometimes, but I was excited to see Richard Baxter address it in his book The Reformed Pastor. The issue is that of Christian brothers who are not interested, sometimes even disdainful, of studying the deeper things of God.

Maybe you know who I’m talking about. Those brothers and sisters who week in, week out want to come to church to hear the same old message on John 3.16 or Philippians 4.13 or Jeremiah 29.11, a message of encouragement and self-esteem, and maybe even a word or two about someone else’s sin. The ones who get mad at you or think you are trying to act smart when you use words like ‘justification’ or ‘penal substitutionary atonement.’ The ones who put books like Your Best Life Now and The Shack on the best-seller list while skipping over more edifying works such as Don’t Waste Your Life or Knowing God. On this, I know I have much to say, but I really liked the way Baxter said it, with all his Puritan tongue-in-cheek:

Convince [the church members] what a contradiction it is to be a Christian, and yet to refuse to learn; for what is a Christian but a disciple of Christ? And how can he be a disciple of Christ, that refuseth to be taught by him? And he that refuseth to be taught by his ministers, refuseth to be taught by him; for Christ will not come down from heaven again to teach them by his own mouth, but hath appointed his ministers to keep school and teach them under him. To say, therefore, that they will not be taught by his ministers, is to say, they will not be taught by Christ; and that is to say, they will not be his disciples, or no Christians.

As I finish The Reformed Pastor and as I move on into Light and Heat: The Puritan View of the Pulpit, I am becoming more and more convicted of the need of strong, deep, challenging Biblical teaching from the pulpit and Sunday School classes of our churches. As a Sunday School teacher myself, I see the tendency of church-goers to slip into a humanistic coma, unaware that the doctrines of God’s majesty and man’s total inability to reach him are just as applicable as passages on prayer and the Proverbs.

More importantly, the church continues sliding away into liberalism and pluralism, neglecting the Word of God, because, I believe, they see so much of the Word of God as unnecessary. What matter is it if we deny a fifth of the text when we see half of the text as being of no use to begin with? The battle for the authority of Scripture is more than just a battle over inerrancy, it is a fight over the proper purview of the Living Word in our everyday lives.

We can no longer be satisfied being Christians that aren’t disciples of Christ. We must be committed to the study of the Word or else we might as well neglect the whole thing!

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You Didn’t Really Mean That, Did You?- Answering the Hell Question, Wrap-Up

October 13, 2008

“He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” -Titus 1.9

I just wanted to thank all of you who have taken the time to read this series of posts on the question of “If God is loving/good, how can he send someone to hell?” As I mentioned in the posts, and as I have stated before in various comments (here and here), this doctrine of hell is one of the most contentious points for evangelical Christianity today. It is being attacked from all sides and as such we need to have a strong, well-formed, and biblical position on it.

To close us out I would like to post a sermon by JD Greear from The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC that he gave a few weeks ago dealing with this question. In it I think he does a great job of answering the objections as well as using the doctrine of hell to give way to the Gospel. Please take the time to listen to this and to begin formulating your own response for the next time this question is asked to you.

JD Greear- How Could a Loving God Send Someone to Hell?

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You Didn’t Really Mean That, Did You?- Answering the Hell Question, Part 4

October 12, 2008

(This is the last in a four part series of posts dealing with the age-old question “How can a loving God send someone to hell?” This answer was originally developed as a reply to an email I received. Today’s post deals with the objection of “Hell does exist, but I don’t see how a loving God could send people there, therefore he doesn’t [or at least not forever].”)

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” -John 3.18

So, then, let’s return to the question, “Does anyone get sent to hell (for eternity)?” or, rephrasing it in terms of what was just said, “Will God (eventually) justify everyone?” To say “Yes” to this question is to assume one of two things, either everyone will profess faith before they die, or God will not hold a lack of faith against people. But I think it is easy to disprove the first assumption, so we must be assuming that God will just overlook people’s lack of faith, and if he doesn’t then he is responsible for sending them to hell.

Can God overlook a lack of faith? Numbers 14.18, “The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.” To think God can overlook our sins is to play down the severity of our sins. Romans 6.23 says “For the wages of sin is death.” Psalm 1.5 says “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” Our sin is so awful to God that we cannot even stand in his presence. He is so holy that he must be separate from all sin. It is for this reason that he could not even look upon his own son when Christ took on our sins on the cross (Matthew 27.46, 2 Corinthians 5.21). As JD Greear from The Summit Church in Raleigh, NC said, we find hell so severe because we don’t think that trampling on God’s glory is that a deal.

Thus, if God can’t overlook a lack of faith, then isn’t he still in some way responsible for sending us to hell? Certainly not. John 3.18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Jesus here clearly tells us that the responsibility for a person’s condemnation is on them because they have not believed. Yet, if you are a Calvinist like myself, believing that “No one can come to [Jesus] unless the Father who sent [him] draws [them]” (John 6.44), then how does God escape responsibility here? Because, the only reason we are cut off from coming to Jesus in the first place is because of our sin (Psalm 51.5, 58.3, Romans 3.10-12, 23, Ephesians 2.1-3), which is necessarily our responsibility since “God made [us] upright” (Genesis 1.31, Ecclesiastes 7.29). Therefore, no matter how we turn, the responsibility for hell falls solely upon our rejection of God and our hardness towards him. As CS Lewis so famously said, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’” It is us who sin and make ourselves unworthy of God’s presence, and the punishment of hell is the natural end of this.

To close, though it is mostly clear from all else we’ve said here, hell is an eternal punishment. Just look at 2 Thessalonians 1.9, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Some people will argue that the Greeks had no word for eternal, which is right, but the word that is used here is ‘aiōnios’, meaning ‘without beginning and end,’ which is what the English word ‘eternal’ means. So, Paul is warning of an eternal punishment, as do Jesus in Matthew 25.41 and Jude in Jude 7.

As a note, there is simply no evidence anywhere, anywhere that God will offer up redemption to man after this life passes. In fact, Revelation 20.11-15 accounts for us that the final judgment will be passed upon the dead for what they had done, ergo, since dead people don’t do anything after dying it would seem fitting that this argues towards our point.

Therefore, in the end, we must conclude that hell is real, God is good, and man is ultimately the one responsible for his own condemnation. Of course this is not exhaustive on the debate, as it has brewed for two millennia with ceasing yet, but hopefully it is extensive enough of a treatment on the subject to be of help. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

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